Yesterday we did toe base walk around uluru. It was a difficult decision to climb or not to climb. On the one hand, the local traditional (and now actual) owners, don’t want you to. That seems like a good reason until you find out that its akin to a religions reason. On the other hand I have very little respect for religion but regard culture and history as important and worth remembering and learning from. I guess its akin to walking into a cathedral and taking photos or anything else they don’t like. Again, I would have no hesitation in doing that.
It seems similar to swearing to me. I don’t think there are any inherantly bad words etc but if a particular word can make someone feel, for want of a better word, bad, then you have to balance your desire to say a particular word with your desire to not make someone feel bad.
So, the decision seemed to come down to me wanting to climb (which would be interesting and have good views) with the owners not wanting me to. I decided,or the reasons outlined above, to not climb.
Anyway, today we went to the Olgas (Kata Titku) and did a canyon walk. It was quite fun and at only an hour long, was quite easy. In the afternoon, we took a helicopter flight over the Olgas and Uluru to get some photos and another perspective. Its quite impressive and its easy to see how a culture focused on animals and the land could make these important places.
I also find it interesting that as a people, they seem to stand alone in creating a ‘Sky Pixie’ thats not in their own image. It seems like a wholly more reasonable approach to inventing someone that looks like yourself as other cultures seem to do.
Tomorrow is the ride to Kings Canyon (about 300k ish)
seriously like me you looked at how steep and far it was and said thatโs way too much like hard work. But I get to blame the wind as it was closed the two days I was there.
CUL8R
Richard